If cancer is treated promptly in the early stage of its development, it can achieve very good results or even be cured. Early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment are crucial for cancer patients. However, in clinical work, it is often encountered that there are many misconceptions about tumor prevention and treatment among both healthy people and tumor patients. Therefore, today, we have compiled ten myths about tumor to see if you also have these misconceptions. Tumor has been proved to be a kind of disease greatly influenced by environment, and its occurrence is closely related to diet structure, living habits and environmental pollution. The two most important points to prevent malignant tumors are: not smoking and reasonable diet. Tumor is not an incurable disease either. Myth 2: It is impossible for tumor patients to return to society Truth: This is the “pessimism” in tumor prevention and treatment. Although tumor can recur and metastasize, it is not a lifelong disease and can be recovered. Most patients with malignant tumors (some tumors such as breast cancer need to be observed for more than 10 years) are cured after 5 years without recurrence. This is because, if the subclinical metastases of tumors are not eliminated, after 5 years of proliferation, they should have reached a level that can be diagnosed. If no more cancer cells are found after 5 years, the patient can be considered cured. Myth 3: Removal of cancer tumor means cured, and radiotherapy and chemotherapy have too many toxic side effects to be done Truth: This is the “blind optimism” in tumor prevention and treatment. Many patients and their families do not understand the metastatic and aggressive characteristics of tumor, and think that surgery to remove tumor is the cure. The blind and ignorant optimism will often delay the follow-up treatment of patients. Many patients and their families hear that radiotherapy and chemotherapy have serious toxic side effects and are unwilling to accept the treatment and let the tumor develop. Although radiotherapy and chemotherapy can kill cancer cells and damage normal cells at the same time, for subclinical metastases that still exist in the body after surgery, only chemotherapy can kill it. For the various side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, there are many drugs available to prevent and alleviate them. Moreover, most medical oncologists have mastered the techniques of preventing and dealing with the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Myth 4: Go to some non-tumor specialists for treatment Truth: This is the “liberalism” in tumor prevention and treatment. Tumor is about scientific and reasonable, standardized and systematic comprehensive treatment, especially the first treatment often plays a decisive role. Many small hospitals do not have the conditions and equipment to carry out comprehensive tumor treatment, but they also treat tumors due to the drive of economic interests; some non-tumor specialists have insufficient knowledge and clinical experience in tumor diagnosis and treatment, but they also carry out radiotherapy and chemotherapy. An unregulated surgery or an unreasonably designed radiotherapy or chemotherapy program may lead to tumor residue or drug resistance, which may bring great difficulties to the next treatment and even lead to the failure of the whole treatment. Myth 5: Believe in “ancestral secret formula” or “single formula” Truth: This is the “opportunism” in tumor prevention and treatment. Some patients or family members often listen to some rumors and spend a lot of money to buy the so-called “ancestral secret recipes” and “single prescriptions”, and even pray to the gods for miracles to happen. These “cancer treatment professionals” and “ancestral families” have not only received no formal medical education, but also have no medical knowledge at all. Myth 6: Doctors and family members conceal the disease Truth: This is the “individualism” in cancer prevention and treatment. Doctors don’t tell patients the real condition of the disease was considered to be the protection for patients, but the consequence of this is that patients don’t actively cooperate with the treatment and it is difficult to get the best effect. Some patients’ family members are afraid to let patients go to oncology specialists for treatment, and are unwilling to carry out necessary radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery, and then carry out treatment when the tumor recurs and metastasizes. Myth 7: One program and one kind of Chinese medicine can cure all tumors Truth: This is the “dogmatism” in tumor prevention and treatment. A certain doctor has cured a certain patient, so many patients will be attracted to this doctor, thinking that their disease can also be cured by this doctor. In fact, tumor is complex and curing one patient is not the same as curing all patients. In addition, many patients blindly believe that a certain Chinese medicine can cure all diseases, most of them can only play a supplementary role. Myth 8: Treating experimental research results as clinical efficacy Truth: This is the “adventurism” in tumor prevention and treatment. The so-called “experimental results” are more than 95% of the results of animal experiments, not the results of clinical application of patients, which is only an advertising technique of businessmen. There are differences between humans and animals, and not all drugs that work on animals work on humans. Even if a certain anti-cancer achievement reported by the regular media has won the national or provincial science and technology progress award, it is still mostly in the laboratory research stage, and there is still a long way to go before clinical application. Myth 9: Blindly believe in experts, not knowing that experts also have focus Truth: This is the “heroism” in tumor prevention and treatment. There are many excellent experts in China who have deep attainments in certain fields of tumor treatment. For example, there are specialists in surgical oncology, specialists in medical oncology who are engaged in chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, biological therapy and nutritional support therapy, and specialists in radiotherapy who are engaged in radiotherapy. Therefore, one should not blindly identify with a certain specialist, but should choose the corresponding specialist according to the different diseases and treatment methods. Myth 10: No painkillers are used for cancer pain Truth: This is the “conservatism” in cancer prevention and treatment. Pain is an important issue that affects the survival quality of patients with advanced cancer. However, many patients and their family members, even a few non-oncology medical professionals, wrongly believe that tumor patients should not use painkillers as a last resort. They are worried about the adverse effects of painkillers; they are worried that once they use them, they cannot stop them; they are worried that if they use painkillers too early, the painkillers will be ineffective when the pain worsens later; they are worried about addiction and so on. Experts believe that pain relief is not harmful, pain relief increases confidence, pain relief is safe, pain relief is not addictive, and pain relief is not extreme. In treating cancer pain, we advocate early, adequate, regular and individualized administration of drugs. It should be noted that the use of dulcolax is not recommended for cancer pain control at present.